Mobile phone usage report 2011: The things you do

Bluetooth file transfers

Wi-Fi Direct is already there but the problem is no handsets can actually use it yet (despite the certificates already issued). And until that becomes possible transferring files over Bluetooth will remain quite popular, no matter how slow.

A quarter of the users have at least one Bluetooth file transfer A day, while two in three make such transfers once a week or rarer.

Teenagers are most keen on Bluetooth file sharing, while women and those aged over 50 are least interested.

You might be shocked to hear that the daily use of Bluetooth file transfers in Africa and Asia is almost three times the number for Europe. Well, we are not. Europeans seem to be rather stiff about almost all mobile phone features in our survey.

Remote controlling another device

Using a cell phone to remotely control another device is what many of you would like to do if given the chance. 14.4% of all people that completed the survey went for the “Would if I could option”.

On the other hand a huge 40.7% have no interest in using such a feature on their handsets. In regular day-to-day usage, the feature is rather unpopular with only just 9.4% needing it daily.

Being able to always access their PC from their cell phones is way more important to teenagers than people in older age groups.

For a change, there’s little difference in usage patterns across continents. Asia is again ahead of the curve.

Wi-Fi

We complete our survey with the use of Wi-Fi. Interestingly, it loses to mobile internet usage but the reason is there for everyone to see – it’s still not available to all the people that might possibly need it.

Women tend to use Wi-Fi less than men, while age group distribution is quite even. Only the 50+ users tend to be slightly off the pace.

The picture is similar across continents, with Africa and Oceania the only two to stand out from the average.

Final words

So that’s that then – we gave you all the answers you gave us, all chewed and easy to swallow. We hope we’ve been of some help. We’ve been asking ourselves many of the questions answered here and we hope those have fascinated you too.

There are some interesting trends showing up – traditional phone features (making calls, SMS and MMS) are starting to lose popularity, but they are still the reason why people buy cell phones. Yet as internet-browsing, IM and email gather continue to gather momentum, we might see those slip further down the ranks.

Probably the most important conclusion is that being always online seems to already be a must for the most of you – something we couldn’t even dream of several years ago. The progress in this area has been remarkable.

Anyway, it seems we have no choice now but do a follow up to this article in a few years’ time. For all we know though, it maybe a future we cannot even start to imagine.